Life-style change: cleric multiclassing

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

frogmantis

Jan 12, 2009 21:22:51
Long story short, I have a cleric of pelor 8/radiant servant of pelor 1... and he's being kicked out/forced to choose a different path. something other than cleric, or a direct cleric prestige class. Its all for roleplaying purposes, but I want to roll with it, adapt.

What would be a good class/prestige class for an ex-cleric of pelor? I could handle something that augmented my clerical powers, it just needs to be something different; or I could do another class all together.

NG Human Clr8/RSoP1
Str 15, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 14, Wis 19, Cha 17
(rolled 4, dropped lowest x6)

Feats (a feat a level; yes, I know, overpowered):
Extra Turning, Sun Devotion, Great Fortitude, Font of Life, Unquenchable Flame of Life, Divine Metamagic, Empower Spell, Extend Spell, Weapon Focus (heavy mace), Heavy Armor Optimization

I'm thinking maybe since I'm already going metamagic, I could do sorcerer, and eventually do a arcane/divine dual prestige class...

thoughts??
#2

jenos

Jan 12, 2009 21:36:10
You could nab sorc 1, take southern magician, and head into mystic theurge. It won't be optimal, but if you're forced to lose a caster level, thats a simple and easy way to head into mystic theurge.

For what you can take, do you mean you simply cannot take a level of any class which increases your spellcasting next level, or you cannot take a level of any class which increases your spellcasting, ever? If its the former, you could pick up something like ordained champion.

You could also nab a level of warlock and head into eldritch disciple, if thats your thing. I think that would be a cool thing, just pick some of the buffing invocations. For instance, at level 1 warlock nab beguiling influence for +6 unnamed bonus to diplomacy/bluff/intimidate, then pick up see the unseen later, for perma see invis...theres a lot of useful 24 hour buff invocations that just make life a tad easier.

Edit: Now that I think about it, the warlock idea could fly...pick up Entropic Warding, Beguiling Influence, and See the Unseen as youe least invocations, and Fell Flight and Voidsense as your lesser.
#3

frogmantis

Jan 12, 2009 22:09:55
I don't have access to Southern Magician (the book it comes from), but that sounds kinda like the path i was thinking.

I'd do warlock, but it doesn't really fit the character/build, particularly with his heavy armor optimization, though I might need to retrain that... ick.

Are there any other ways to boost dual arcane/divine dualclassing? or just other suggestions... I suppose since his next best stat is charisma, any character that greatly benefits from a high charisma (and a wisdom for that matter), would be a good choice i think.
#4

jenos

Jan 12, 2009 22:36:51
The point I was making about warlock(Flavor aside) is that you pick up invocations you won't use in combat but make useful buffs. For example, see the unseen is permanent see invisibility(Maybe not so useful at your level). You can cast in the beginning of the day before you put your fullplate on(Or hell, after you put it on, it just might take one or two tries) and it will last 24 hours. Warlock or wizard, either caster is going to end up going to primarily provide buffs and utility spells, because of how much higher your cleric casting is, it won't be worth the actions to actually cast wizard spells in combat.

Because of that, I was really thinking warlock, as the buffs are 24 hours, and are useful things, In addition, some of ED abilities are pretty nice.

If you want to go caster, you could also look into alternate spell source from dragon magazine. Since you're not an illumnian, I think thats the only way you can get in without heighten magic cheese(Like heigthen+sanctum or heighten+earth spell).

Also, you need to have an instance of divine metamagic for each feat you have. You only have it listed once, which feat does it apply to?
#5

frogmantis

Jan 12, 2009 23:16:26
Also, you need to have an instance of divine metamagic for each feat you have. You only have it listed once, which feat does it apply to?

I forgot to put that in, its Divine Metamagic: Empower Spell.

To be honest with you, he's already shooting lights and rays of the sun, so warlock isn't THAT far off in his build. but he's also not chaotic (and obviously not evil), which you have be to be a warlock. but that can be changed... which might actually go along with his being pushed out of the hierarchy of his church. And with those buffs and a little hideous blow... divine gish, sorta.

HMMMMMM that makes me wonder indeed... good idea. But i'm still open to interpretation.
#6

reis

Jan 12, 2009 23:27:42
go worship heironeous and go into ordained champion
#7

jenos

Jan 12, 2009 23:45:23
The alignment of warlock is actually debatable - because there are no penalties for not being chaotic, its hard to say if thats a hard and fast rule. Warlock isn't a prestige class, there are no requirements for taking levels in the class. All other base classes with alignment restrictions have "ex-Class" runes(ex-bards, ex-barbarians, ex-monks). One group of people believe that warlocks are supposed to have a ex-warlock listing in the book, another camp believes the alignment is "often chaotic or evil" but it hasn't been definitively answered either way.

That being said, my point is you don't ever want to be casting invocations or eldritch blast in combat. Both suffer from ASF - what you want is to cast invocations in the beginning of the day, and they'll last all day. Pick invocations that are just plain useful buffs, such as See the Unseen, Beguiling Influence, Fell Flight, Voidsense, etc. You're not going to be able to reasonably do damage with either eldritch blast or your invocations this late in the game - at level 11(Cleric 8/RSoP 1/Warlock 1/Eldritch Disciple 1) you have a caster level of 2 for your warlock side, and an eldritch blast of 1d6. You won't ever break SR, the saves are crap, etc. So don't worry about the actual combat abilities, go for the useful buffs. Eldritch Disciple also gives a couple of useful abilities you can turn turn undead into, which is always nice.

Also, I was under the impression you can't take a level in a class such as ordained champion. If you can, ignore everything I've said and take ordained champion, its excellent and you are going to lose a caster level at level 10 no matter what you do, and OC loses a caster level at OC 1.
#8

frogmantis

Jan 13, 2009 0:13:11
Also, I was under the impression you can't take a level in a class such as ordained champion. If you can, ignore everything I've said and take ordained champion, its excellent and you are going to lose a caster level at level 10 no matter what you do, and OC loses a caster level at OC 1.

OC is only for heironeous or hextor, i believe. But that's not exactly the build I am looking for. The warlock could fit. You provoke AoO or arcane spell failure for your eldritch blast or hideous blow? because i was just thinkin of using it as a melee damage buff in and of itself.
#9

jenos

Jan 13, 2009 0:43:16
Hideous blow, is, well, hideous. It suffers ASF, as all eldritch blasts do(Unless you're in light armor), and you take a standard action to attack once with a melee strike and do eldritch blast damage + weapon damage. And it does provoke an AOO unless you cast it defensively.

Compare that to plain out attacking with a divine power'd cleric. Cast divine power at level 13, your BAB goes to +11, so you get three iterative attacks, and all those attacks have your buffed damage on that. At level 13, your eldritch blast will do 2d6 damage. In addition, hideous blow is subject to spell resistance, so your eldritch blast on any foes with SR will have to be beaten with a whopping +3 caster level at level 13(Average SR there is going to be >23).

If you really want to melee, take a look at eldritch glaive. This lets you make iterative attacks with your eldritch blast, so you can divine power for three attacks and whack away. It still won't do a lot of damage, but its better than hideous blow.

But frankly, you're going to out DPS your warlock side by simply whacking away with cleric buffs. Use your warlock buffs to help that(See the invis people, get a flight speed, etc).

Also, ask your DM if practiced spellcaster will increase eldritch blast damage, or give you more invocations known. Its debatable if it functions like that, and tends to be the DM ruling.
#10

PlzBreakMyCampaign

Jan 13, 2009 2:53:10
Cleric is good. Warlock is still very yummy. But RSoP is there worst class-flavor specific PrC ever made. Don't do it whatever you do. Seriously, unless your big into following some fictional pagan god then just don't do it. You don't need the saves or the casting progression that bad; there are better options out there.

Just say nooooooooooooooo to Radiant Servant of Pelor.
#11

frogmantis

Jan 13, 2009 19:38:17
Cleric is good. Warlock is still very yummy. But RSoP is there worst class-flavor specific PrC ever made. Don't do it whatever you do. Seriously, unless your big into following some fictional pagan god then just don't do it. You don't need the saves or the casting progression that bad; there are better options out there.

Just say nooooooooooooooo to Radiant Servant of Pelor.

Haha, I don't understand, what do you mean? Its really not a bad prestige class. you keep turning, full spell progression, keep cleric saves and BAB, plus get bonuses to healing, extra turning boost, a bunch of other buffs... all you lose is one level of hit die.

...how is that bad? haha, well, even if it may or may not be bad, i've already got one level in it. what I need is something afterward.
#12

jenos

Jan 13, 2009 19:42:27
How you read the flavor is up to you, but the big thing is that is the class abilities are mediocre. In the same book there are a number of other classes that function a lot better in increasing your abilities than RSoP does.

Its not bad, its just not good either. You should never want to focus on optimizing your healing - in general, as a cleric you have better things to do in combat than heal. Healing for the most part isn't worth the action it takes until you get access to Heal.
#13

frogmantis

Jan 13, 2009 19:46:13
Its not bad, its just not good either. You should never want to focus on optimizing your healing - in general, as a cleric you have better things to do in combat than heal. Healing for the most part isn't worth the action it takes until you get access to Heal.

Well, I would most definitely agree, except... its a very undead heavy campaign. so all that healings turns into damage.
#14

heliomance

Jan 13, 2009 20:23:44
Something that might be interesting, though at this stage in the build will probably need munchkinery to make it viable.

1) Get 3rd level arcane spellcasting
2) Go into War Weaver

Now, War Weaver is a very interesting class. It lets you cast "harmless" spells or spells that require a willing target on all your allies at once, through something called an eldritch tapestry. It has 4/5 arcane casting progression, and is clearly designed only for arcane casters. This is because divine casters with the abilities it gives would be silly, what with cure spells and the wider range of buffs divine casters get.

Unfortunately, they forgot to say you could only cast arcane spells through the tapestry. This means that if you have divine casting from another source, you get to unload that divine goodness on all your allies at once. At later levels, you get to pre-cast and store up to four spells in the tapestry, and release them all as a move action. The capstone ability increases the range of all spells cast through the tapestry - so that touch spells become close, and close spells medium, and so on. It's an incredible class for a buffmonkey, and while at this point getting into it would result in some serious CL loss, if you can't get more cleric spells anyway it might be worth it.
#15

frogmantis

Jan 13, 2009 20:57:19
taht sounds interesting, but where is the war weaver? maybe i'm just missing it... i have a lot of books, but not all of them.

that said, is there any way to retroactively change cleric levels into something else? or better yet, if you switch deities, is there a way to gain back all the levels you lost once you start worshipping said deity?

i guess i'm looking for some in-game way of making a change of faith, and trying to optimize from there. not sure if i was clear on that, but that's whats been in the back of my head.
#16

gilfalas_elaandrin

Jan 13, 2009 21:05:44
Long story short, I have a cleric of pelor 8/radiant servant of pelor 1... and he's being kicked out/forced to choose a different path. something other than cleric, or a direct cleric prestige class. Its all for roleplaying purposes, but I want to roll with it, adapt.

Why? Is he being excommunicated? Does he still beleive in and is faithful to Pelor? Has he lost his faith? How is he reacting to this? Is this strictly religous politics within the church of Pelor or is your god telling you to change?

These questions could help determine what path he turns to.
#17

gilfalas_elaandrin

Jan 13, 2009 21:07:43
Long story short, I have a cleric of pelor 8/radiant servant of pelor 1... and he's being kicked out/forced to choose a different path. something other than cleric, or a direct cleric prestige class. Its all for roleplaying purposes, but I want to roll with it, adapt.

Why? Is he being excommunicated? Does he still beleive in and is faithful to Pelor? Has he lost his faith? How is he reacting to this? Is this strictly religous politics within the church of Pelor or is your god telling you to change?

You mention that this is an undead heavy campaign. What other threats are there that are havily prevalent?

These questions could help determine what path he turns to.
#18

frogmantis

Jan 13, 2009 21:13:58
Why? Is he being excommunicated? Does he still beleive in and is faithful to Pelor? Has he lost his faith? How is he reacting to this? Is this strictly religous politics within the church of Pelor or is your god telling you to change?

You mention that this is an undead heavy campaign. What other threats are there that are havily prevalent?

These questions could help determine what path he turns to.

True, I didn't elaborate much. Its about undead, really, that his faith is challenged. he met some non-evil intelligent undead, and he's traveling with an archivist who's very undead-friendly. but he's also being kicked out of the church. the dispute is whether nor not he could still believe in Pelor (and therefor still take cleric levels for him) and believe that not ALL undead need immediate smiting.

The campaign features heavily into gothic or dark campaign material, like hags, undead, lycanthropes, witches (humanoids), etc.
#19

jenos

Jan 13, 2009 21:29:12
Technically, you could enter War Weaver by simply taking a feat such as Southern Magician or Alternate Spell Source. However, the spellcasting specifically mentions that it only increases arcane spellcaster levels, making it not nearly as useful.

War Weaver with divine builds can only be effective with Wizard 3/Cleric 1/Mystic Theurge 10/War Weaver 5/XYZ 1, where you sacrifice two spellcasting levels for 6th level divine spells and war weaver goodies.

Not possible for you to do it now.

Also, even with lots of undead, spending an action to cast a heal isn't all that effecient. You'll deal 38 damage per hit(With both SR AND a will save for half) by casting a 4th level spell thats empowered(RSoP 2 ability) at level 11. Instead, if you used that 4th level spell to cast Divine Might, you would be able to melee for considerable amounts of damage per turn. Couple with other buffs such as Polymorph and Righteous Might, and you do more damage with a melee full attack than you do with a spell, and if you throw in divine metamagic with persistent spell, you can do it all day long.
#20

heliomance

Jan 14, 2009 1:28:41
War Weaver is in Heroes of Battle, but as mentioned it requires some dedicated min/maxing to be useful to a divine character.
#21

frogmantis

Jan 14, 2009 10:39:48
yeah... with his progression so far, would it be applicable at all to do levels in bard, then doing a prestige class to boost?

Along that line, is there a bard/divine caster prestige class? Some that boosts divine spells and bardic music/spells?

cause that would be fun...
#22

the_shaman

Jan 14, 2009 10:43:48
Well, there is the Fochlucan Lyrist, which is supposedly bardic/druidic, but apart from the tricky prerequisites should be ok. Arcane hierophant and mystic theurge can also work, I guess.

Why not pick up a level or two of Ardent, get practiced manifester, then go into the psychic/divine dual-casting PrC (edit: psychic theurge) ? It should be simplicity itself.
#23

phaedrusxy

Jan 14, 2009 11:16:13
You can just change to a different god. You'll probably have to fulfill some RP fluff from your DM, and then a cleric of the other faith will probably have to cast Atonement on you. The RSoP level will probably wasted, unless you can retrain it using the PHB2 (or was it DMG2?) retraining rules to exchange it.
#24

frogmantis

Jan 14, 2009 12:19:52
You can just change to a different god. You'll probably have to fulfill some RP fluff from your DM, and then a cleric of the other faith will probably have to cast Atonement on you. The RSoP level will probably wasted, unless you can retrain it using the PHB2 (or was it DMG2?) retraining rules to exchange it.

yeah, I got the okay to level retrain along with a retrain quest. i'll keep some of my cleric levels, but i am thinking of switching deities. I'm thinking marshal. I can keep being the buffer Ive been, and maybe with a bit of feat retraining, can make something special.

so how do you optimize a marshal? i've never played one, and there isn't a marshal handbook, not that i can find...
#25

cru

Jan 14, 2009 12:21:15
there's a prc for ex-clerics called Defiant in Planar Handbook... not exactly a powerhouse I fear

Edit: marshal is usually optimized by having high cha and taking only very few levels of marshal
#26

hogarth

Jan 14, 2009 13:46:03
How about an Ardent Dilettante (from the Planar Handbook)? It would certainly qualify as "something different".
#27

headofvecna

Jan 14, 2009 17:56:12
I'd go with a level of Crusader then the full ten levels of Ruby Knight Vindicator (both from Tome of Battle). Going late into a martial adept class doesn't hurt much due to the way initiator levels work. And given the reasons your character was kicked out of the church of Pelor, a switch to Wee Jas makes a certain amount of sense. Oh and RKV is an absolutely amazing PrC :D .
#28

frogmantis

Jan 14, 2009 20:13:29
I thought about the defiant, but if I did that i'd really be swinging the other way around, going in the opposite direction of RSoP. ...which would be cool, thematically. But it isnt' a very powerful build, and it does require a complete and utter refusal of the existence of the gods. he's going "rogue," not atheist.

That said, Ruby Knight was a good one, and might fit with his theme. I'm still leaning on taking at least a few levels of marshal, or doing the PHB II level retraining to keep his buffer theme.
#29

headofvecna

Jan 14, 2009 22:45:42
If you do go the RKV route and are allowed to retrain levels freely, I would go either Cleric 3/Marshal 1/Crusader 1/RKV 4 or Cleric 7/Marshal 1/Crusader 1/RKV X. The Former will give you the option to take all 2nd level maneuvers with your Crusader level, while the latter will allow all 3rd level ones.
#30

frogmantis

Jan 15, 2009 0:22:35
excellent tip, though if i go that route i might go marshal 2 for the major aura bonus, though that would be another hit to my BAB...
#31

brainpiercing

Jan 15, 2009 9:41:25
excellent tip, though if i go that route i might go marshal 2 for the major aura bonus, though that would be another hit to my BAB...

Uh... for Marshalls Minor Auras rock. Major Auras give piddly +1 bonuses to a bunch of things. That's just at total waste of a level. Don't believe the book when it says major. Major suck, maybe.

I would agree that the best step is going RKV. You might want to go the route of being a Leader and take lots of White Raven maneuvers instead of the usual Shadow Hand shadow-stepping killer. That way you can keep on being a boon to the party.
#32

frogmantis

Jan 15, 2009 16:00:50
oh yeah, if I did RKV, i'd go white raven.

the idea is that i need this character to go from undead-fighting cleric, to uber-buffer melee. its basically having to rebuild from the ground up using PHB II rebuilding rules.
#33

PlzBreakMyCampaign

Jan 20, 2009 0:00:09
White raven tactics is the gravy of white raven. That maneuver is so broken its not even funny. Still RKV is tasty. If TOB is allowed definately retrain your silly RSoP levels.

The reason why Radiant Servant is so bad isn't in what it does, its in what it doesn't do - or rather what it tries to do and fails at instead. Yes it has casting, some BaB and some saves. But lots of cleric PrCs have that. The long from is here:

Show

I once played a cleric 6 / Radiant servant 4 of pelor (only 1 base class and 1 PrC was allowed). I did radiant servant because I am a sick bastard who actually likes playing a healbot because I had a bear custom race (think a very furry dwarf). I put my DF in my belly button and called myself a CARE BEAR. But I also wanted undead-nuking potential (care bear stare :eek. I believed the DM and took the Prc [note to boards, not all full casting progression PrCs are created equally]

Also I was using pretty much core-only spells (the DM was finicky about SpC). So my full caster progression wasn't crazy. Also I didn't DMM since Codzilla made people cringe. Okay fine I had full casting for weak spells and armor that sucked most of my WBL (monks seem very appealing at level at or before 10).

Yeah my domains healing and sun (a fighter would have had better feats by that level). My radiance ability didn't do much and the aura of warding saved me a spell (yay?). I usually prepared sun domain spells so my Empower Healing did nothing since it only works for "cast a domain spell from the" [if you don't believe me go look at the freaking text]. Anyways the divine health actually screwed me over.

We fought some lycanthropes and we all got bitten - This is good since the DM was playing racial HD don't count to ECL. Most of the party got crappy animals (rats and crap) but I got bitten by a bear. So I said "sweet! Now I'm a werebear care bear!" but then I realized I had that f**k*ng Divine health which cheated me out of crazy stats, BaB, skills, saves, and abilities.

Take my word for it Never, ever play a radiant servant of pelor unless there are no other full spellcasting PrCs... and even then you still shouldn't. So you understand how poorly built more poor care-bear was (though I could nuke undead like nobody's business). The undead burst thing (later) is flavorful but retarded since you should be able to turn and destroy most any undead you face... also the extra domain (also which I never got) is fun but not worth 5 mostly dead levels.

#34

frogmantis

Jan 20, 2009 11:34:20
haha, i think you all are overreacting at how underpowered RSoP is. Its good for what you get. If it sucks circumstantially, then that's circumstantial. The ability to destroy undead that you would normally turn, the ability to empower and maximize healing (and therefore damage to undead). Its not bad. its defintely not the best, but its supposed to be good at one thing, not at everything.

heh, anyway... I might level retrain to lose a few levels to get a martial class or marshal level or two.

I've just about settled at crusader (or swordsage, and getting my wisdom to AC along with light armor). course, i'd have to choose if I want white raven or not. i could always go warblade for whiteraven, for higher hitdice and some benefit from my +2 int.

so many choices!
#35

headofvecna

Jan 20, 2009 13:33:27
Keep in mind that if you do want to go with RKV, only Crusader grants Devoted Spirit maneuvers and stances. And I'll +1 the comment that more than one level in Marshal is pretty useless.